New York - Day 2

Sunday morning we slept in...a little but still made it downstairs for our free breakfast that was actually pretty good! Especially since most days the Crack team doesn't eat much breakfast because sleep is much more valuable than food for us in the mornings.

After Breakfast, we headed back up to our room for some quiet time. We had gotten the King Suite room which included a sofa and coffee table. So we curled up for our own "church." I have to say, I endorse Bed-side Baptist for an occasional alternative to corporate worship. We read together some of Love and Respect which was given to us at our wedding.
When we finally went outside it was COLD! Darn that springtime on the East Coast can be like winter in Texas. Or darn that putting Christmas lights up in Texas can be done in shorts. Either way, my thin blood noticed the chill in the air. We decided it was the perfect day for Broadway and headed to TKTS for some matinee tickets. We opted for Chorus Line. My mom always loved it, I love to dance, and Chris loves to sing so it seemed like a good choice. I did a little scream as we were leaving the ticket line...I figure NY could handle my drama and go figure, no one even flinched.

The theater was opening in 15 minutes so we rounded out the NY experience by grabbing a hot dog, pretzel, and coke from one of the street cart vendors. We ate quickly in an alley (to avoid the wind chill) and headed to the theater. It's so strange to me that in NY stuffing a hot dog down your throat in an alley can be in the company of the most wealthy businessman in a full suit, a homeless person who wrangled some hot dog money from someone on the street, or both. I wonder if people pegged us as deliriously in love Texans who were super excited for Broadway...cause we were.

On with the show! We headed to the theater to find that we had great seats on the floor level. I heart TKTS! Also, I have to say, we LOVED Chorus Line. It was such a great story and the cast really responded to our active audience. We both enjoyed it so much we figured we'd extend the cold day by seeing an evening show too! We'd been bitten by the Broadway bug...

So, we got back in the TKTS line and choose tickets for Chicago which was in a theater really close to our hotel. (Note, I did another shriek of excitement with no response, what gives NYC?)We had time this round to go back and change into some pretty clothes. On our way back we ran into a girl in Times Square we assume is a Intern for the David Letterman Show giving out tickets. She told us "You look fun" and then asked a trivia question - apparently you have to know something about the show to go. She asked for the name of the woman in the Paul Shaffer band. Let me note something VERY important here: Chris and I don't watch much TV and particularly don't watch the late shows. So we had no idea. She agreed that since "we were fun" she'd ask one more questions which she wasn't supposed to do. Another note - if that really is the rule it's LAME since everyone else gives out free tickets, if it's not the rule why make your interns say it is? That only makes them look like dishonest employees. Anyway, this time she asked the hair color of Dave's announcer. Apparently that is an easy question and luckily Chris was able to answer: red. She gave us tickets for the Monday taping of Friday's show. (One more scream of excitement because heck, we're fun and I don't need a response). More on the LNWDL show in tomorrow's post.

We got in our pretty clothes even though it was still cold and headed to Chicago. It was good...not better than Chorus Line but for us Chorus Line would be hard to beat. We loved that the orchestra was on stage as part of the set. To watch them in action was great. Roxie Hart was played by a girl named Bianca Marroquin from Texas. She had a really great voice. Afterwards we were trying to figure out where to eat and out walks Roxie Hart herself. She was super nice and even agreed to take a picture with us (see picture!). Texans stick together - even in the Big Apple.

We were cold and hungry which for any of you that know the Crack Team know those are deadly ingredients for grouchy people. But, the Big Apple allure helped us get to a tiny Cantonese Noodle Soup dive without too much distress. I have to say that it seems you could walk into lots of places in NY and find something good to eat. The noodle place was no different. We each got a big bowl of noodle soup and talked about our Broadway Blow-out Day. If only I could sing I'd be right there in Chorus Line! To no response I even tried to re-sing the Ballet song on the walk home. Bless Chris...and his ears.

We got back to our hotel and cuddled in for a good nights sleep as lots of walking made for tired legs...

New York - Day 1

Because nothing says serenity, rest, and relaxation like Times Square, New York that is exactly where we decided to spend 5 days in celebration and rejuvenation of finishing our six week class. I'll say it again, it's always an adventure with the Crack Team.

Our flight left from Austin at 6am. In the collection of previous posts, I am sure you are readily aware that we are not morning people. And by morning we mean the hours of 7am - 10am. So, leaving our home at 4am was really closer to our bedtime than our wake up time. Needless to say, we slept almost the entire Jet Blue flight...and I was really looking forward to the tv's. I figured they had more than the 6 channels we have.

Once we landed in NY we got our luggage and called the same car service my company uses (or my old company, reference previous post). Although Chris would much prefer the adventure and frugal options of the subway or a yellow cab, we had big bags, empty stomachs (we both get carsick) and were more than ready to be in the city which is no short trip in public transportation. I pushed for the car service and the beautiful Lincoln town car got us from airport to hotel quickly, comfortably, and actually turned out to be the same as a yellow cab. Let me know if you are going to NYC and need the service number!

We dropped our luggage at the Hampton and headed to lunch. As we were walking there, a couple was openly and loudly arguing in the street. He would yell "If you walk away from me one more time, that is IT!" She would yell back "Oh just watch me...." and let the record state I have omitted many expletives because here at the Crack Team Chronicles we like to keep things PG. Anyway we awkwardly walked by, felt horribly for them, and weren't sure what we should do. We noticed other people walking on the street as though nothing were going on. It was then that we realized we weren't in Austin anymore. We collectively determined that since people are always around you in NY things that we are used to doing in private, people in NY do wherever since privacy is utterly unaffordable. We celebrated our thesis with a make out right in the middle of the sidewalk on 51st. Why not?

For lunch we went to Eatery. It was a short walk from our hotel and really good. We LOVED the edamame and recommend it. Chris had a burger that he also really enjoyed and I had the Southwestern Panini...yum!

Next we headed to Times Square to kill some time while they were preparing our room...and because after eating so much walking around seemed like a great way to make sure our pants would still fit. We went into the Hershey store because Chris loves chocolate. It was packed and really not too interesting - very NY touristy. The last thing we needed was a regular old Hershey bar for $5 because it had a picture of the Statue of Liberty on it. No offense Ms. Liberty. So we headed right across the street to M&M world. While it was equally as touristy in some ways, it was larger and more fun in enough other ways. The pic with this post is me with Disco M. There was also a whole wall with two story tubes filled with many colors of M&M. You could make your own combination. We love M&M's and the chance to make ours pretty seemed brilliant. We also found one of those machines where you put in $0.50 and a penny, crank the handle and it magically embosses a commemorative design on it. I put in the money, Chris cranked the handle, and out it came - an M&M penny. We were like kids in a candy store...and to some people we literally were!!

Finally it was back to the hotel for a little nap before our big night on the town. Even with glorious shopping in spitting distance, lights and action a block away, and the naked cowboy playing his guitar in the middle of Times Square, there was no denying that these night owls had started their day at a painful and ridiculous hour of the morning. If only coffee was an option for us....

Awake and dressed for a night out, we ventured across the street from our hotel to the subway. I was a little uncertain of the subway, especially at night. I've seen the movies, people! Well, it turns out that danger in the subway is like Texans riding horses everywhere...only in the movies. We got our tickets, got on the A train, and headed to the upper west side for an Italian feast.

We went to Regional for dinner. It was FABULOUS! Another strong recommendation from the Crack Team. Our waitress was so sweet and informative, the ambiance was perfect, and the food was unreal! They start you off with an appetizer plate of chickpeas and toasted Italian bread. We also enjoyed a glad of red wine (I wish I could remember the name!). For dinner, Chris had Maccheroni con Salsa di Melenzane e Pomodori - a plate from Sicily that was, in Texan terms, wide rigatoni noodles, with eggplant, tomato and dry ricotta cheese. I had the Culingionis al Pomodoro - a plate from Sardegna. It was sheep milk cheese ravioli, in tomato sauce, with pecorino cheese. If we were thinking with our heads instead of our taste buds we'd have saved some room for dessert but instead polished off our entire plates. We loved our whole Regional experience.

We headed back to the hotel for some sleep - big things were still ahead and since breakfast was free in the morning we couldn't sleep in too much or we'd miss it. Day 2, coming soon....

The day EVERYONE was on time for a meeting

I am a creative type, the people I work with are creative types. WE ARE CREATIVE TYPES!

I think it has something to do with us creative types but I work at a company where we come in at 9:00, start to function by 10, and around 4:30 we're finally highly efficient and racing the clock to get out by 6 and still have some happy hour specials going. Part of that mentality or "culture" is that people are habitually late for meetings. Of course no meetings are set before 10a(too early), no meetings from noon - 2pm (lunch), and of course a meeting after 4:30 would cut into our most efficient hours. So with very little time to actually meet in any given day you would assume people would be timely. But, we're creative types. (Let me include a side note that inspite of our habitual lateness and need to sleep in, I work with some of the most brilliant people in the industry. I'd go into a long list of accomplishments here but it's really not about that this time).

About every quarter, maybe a little longer, our CEO sends out a friendly email reminder about meeting etiquette. The top of the list is always the importance of being on time. Being the employee that I am, I always straighten up my act a little around the email reminder time. I mean, who is going to be late after the head honcho sent out a reminder that being late is RUDE? Typically I get there early, I read a couple of the celeb gossip magazines that we have in abundance around here and as the clock rolls past the stated meeting time I realize I am waiting on my superiors. While I love reading about the newest out -of-wedlock pregnancy and seeing the hot new shoes the "it" girls are wearing, sitting around gets old fast when I have so much work to do in so little time (reference above for productive time in a given work day). So, I slip back to my old ways and eventually we get the meeting reminder again.

Today however the tables turned, completely. We had our monthly business review meeting(aka: the MBR). Rumors have been flying that the outlook wasn't good but nothing had been totally confirmed. My fellow cube dwellers and I headed to the meeting, grabbed our brightly colored bean bag chairs and plopped down (good thing I wore my palazoo's today and not the pencil skirt that was calling my name in the closet). I looked around and noticed the phenomena - people were on time, everyone was on time. I was thinking to myself that this couldn't be good, while Tony (co-worker) started commenting on the book shelf he wanted. To kill the time I noticed a few things that would accent our home well too. I was almost cheerful again...

But then our Japanese CEO came in (whom we've never seen before) and made some "corporate" joke that created stifled laughter. Then he gave some speech about our hard work and their hard decision but in the end we are closing our division. People will be laid off as early as two weeks from now through the end of the summer. He also told us to be sure to fulfill our job requirements....ummm yeah right. I almost laughed out loud. I don't know who he's fooling when one minute he basically tells us we'll all be laid off and the next tells to to be sure to keep working. He finishes the speech about finishing on a high note, working hard, fulfilling our licenses agreements blah blah and of course - being on time to meetings. I have four words for him:

We are creative types.

My last day is May 30th. If you know of a job that is 0.9 miles from my house, flexible hours, high hourly rate, and fun creative people let me know. Or, in case I have to give up that dream, I'd also love to be a personal shopper. Feel free to contact me for that too.

In the meantime, I'll say goodbye to my whole team on May 6th. And will likely be the sad left over who is ebay-ing desk chairs and dusting old bookshelves.

On a higher note, I still need to blog about NY - it's coming soon, I promise. At least I splurged on the Red Hot Marc Jacobs heels. Had I known what was coming I probably would have chosen a more sensible pair of shoes to remember our trip....and since when has being sensible about shoes ever been enjoyable for creative types?

Thanks for your prayers and support in this. It's a sad day really.

So much to Blog....so little time!

I've been so bad about blogging...

I promise to update very soon. We just got back last night from NYC and have much to share. I just need a few days to get my feet back on the ground and realize we're not in the city anymore.

Hang tight!